Wednesday, September 29, 2010

When I wake up on Wednesdays I always give a little cheer, "Yeah! It's Wednesday!! I get to sing with Andrew!!! Andrew is our music teacher and he's just one of the very best in the business.

I dis some more cheering this morning because Mrs. Gronlund, my student teacher, is doing such a fabulous job running the classroom. She's so capable. Meanwhile, behind the shoji screen, I'm getting around to some long-neglected clutter removal. It feels good to unload the accumulations of unused instructional materials. (Shh—don't tell anyone that most of the stuff I'm tossing hasn't been used in 30 years.)

I'm supposed to stay out of the way, but I had to sneak in and snatch a photo of her math lesson.

Here she is teaching the class about coins.

She had the class sort them and helped them learn about their names.

At the end of the day, I grabbed my ukulele and joined in the fun. It would have been torture for me to stay away.

Here's Andrew and me with the kindergarten and first grade singing our hearts out.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Today was the first day of Mrs. Gronlund's take over and she did a wonderful job. The class was humming along as they began a two week study of butterflies. Here are some snapshots I took, even though I'm supposed to make myself pretty scarce in kindergarten.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

(This article appeared recently in the Orange County Register. It discusses Senate Bill 1881 awaiting the governor's signature to become law. Last summer I traveled to Sacramento to lobby for the passage of this bill. It's something the California Kindergarten Teachers' Association has been working on for decades.)

By TERYL ZARNOW
COLUMNIST
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

As I watched my son standing at the end of the kindergarten line -- flapping both his mouth and his arms -- I knew I had made the right decision.

My eldest was a November baby. Under state law, so long as he turned 5 by Dec. 2, he could have started kindergarten at age 4. I was a new mother, but I knew better than to send him too early.

Twenty-two years ago he started school at 5 years old, and good thing. As it was, he lagged in scissor skills and he was last in his class to learn to tie his shoes. (Although he still wraps the lace around two rabbit ears, this has not affected his success in law school.)

In preschool, I wanted the teacher to love my child. In kindergarten, I knew the teacher would grade him. I volunteered in the classroom hoping, perhaps, the teacher would at least love me. With three children, I went to kindergarten three times.

Even then -- when kindergarten still had a play kitchen in one corner -- it was asking a lot of a 4-year-old. Students spent a week studying the letter "A." They traced it and glued rice to outline its shape. On Friday, they ate apples.
Most states require a child to turn 5 by Sept. 1, but California is one of only four states enrolling children younger.
This year, after 13 tries, the state lesgislature passed a measure to change the cutoff date from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1.
It's about time.

•••

In Danielle Zavala's class at Horace Mann Elementary School in Anaheim, kindergarten feels like postgraduate work for preschool. Apples still get a lot of attention -- but not as the letter of the week. Apple is a word in a sentence.
Small groups of students rotate to their teacher where they read and write.

They build sentences starting with "I," (the "high frequency word" of the day; there are 29 more.) They read it and write it - "a stick" with "a hat" and "shoes." Each child then chooses from the list to complete sentences that begin with the words "I see..."
Irwin Mancilla reads his finished paper: "I see a red car."
"Very good," Zavala beams. "You're reading."
The first group traces words, but the next is able to write their words independently. Another group only creates one sentence all together.

In this classroom, six of 33 students are 4 years old. They could be as much as a year younger than the oldest students. One was born on Dec. 2.
"Usually," Zavala notes, "the students with challenges have a fall birthday."
Her own son has an October birthday, and she did not send him to kindergarten until he was nearly six.
Later, the class will describe the color of apples, write a sentence about it and count the words in that sentence. Each child then will read it aloud before leaving the rug.

It's intense – and this is only day 27 for this kindergarten track.
The state revised its curriculum standards for kindergarten about 10 years ago, leaving very little familiar to me except for stories, songs and recess.

The morning rushes onward, a train with a schedule to keep. It includes a timed math paper – touching and counting. Later, the class reviews numbers. Today they start studying the teens.

State standards include early foundation skills for algebra and geometry. So a new concept this day is "more" and "fewer."
Zavala, a 14-year classroom veteran, teaches and tests to the standards. We expect a lot from kindergarten, she agrees.
"Each year the expectations increase. You teach things a lot sooner."
Do we expect too much?
She hesitates.
"It's do-able because it's what I have to do."
The color of the day is yellow, and Marcos Briones colors his duck with brute force.
"It's hard work," he says, pressing harder.
Yes, it is.

•••

The point is not to start school already behind. Linda deCoup, a former teacher and administrator turned tutor in Mission Viejo, says parents ask her to tutor kindergarteners in reading. She also works with children who started school too soon and stayed at a disadvantage.

"They get put in the lower groups and that follows them all the way through school...that affects their self-esteem." Teachers can name the groups whatever they want, but eventually everyone knows that "purple" is the slow group.

Educators generally agree that extra time does not guarantee kindergarten readiness. Just as important is what you do with that time. An extra year at home with no enrichment offers little preparation.

"That extra year must have enriching activities," deCoup stresses.

In Zavala's class, some children trace their names, while others write them independently. She says that whether a child attended preschool matters as much as age.

That's why SB 1381, written by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, addresses the larger issue.
It uses the money saved by fewer kindergarteners to fund transitional kindergarten classes for younger students. For families that find preschool unaffordable, this two-year program is perfect.

The new age requirement, affecting about 120,000 children per year, would be phased in over three years starting in 2012. If the governor signs it, state law will finally catch up to what many parents already do: give their kids an extra year.

In Room 58 at Horace Mann School, expectations are high. Kindergarten is school without training wheels.
As the children line up for recess and their turn at the coveted tricycles, I'm kneeling to tie sneakers.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Today was Zander's Day to bring in snack and a story to share. It was his day to lead the lines and so on. Since he had to wait until everyone else had a turn, I let Zander be the first to take over the duties of pointing to the Soundabet chart as we sing the song, and he did a very good job. Way to go, Zander!

Here are photos to get good conversations about what happened in school today going in your home tonight.

We have two mothers who have stepped forward to offer their services as Room Parents for Kindergarten this year.

They are Ryan's mom, Shari, and Elsa's mom, Sonja. I welcome you to the Kindergarten! Thank you.

Here, let me introduce you to them.

Shari

Sonja

Please say hello and get to know them. Towards the middle of next month they will begin to think about the Halloween classroom party and they may ask for your assistance. I hope everyone will offer to help them when they ask for a hand.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Can you donate fiber egg cartons? We need them for an art project we'll be doing in the near future.

We will be painting them, so they need to be made of paper pulp fiber, not styrofoam so that the paint will adhere to the surface. Mrs. Grönlund would prefer whole cartons, not the cut in half ones I have at home, like the one in the photo here.

Tuesday was Rielley's day and the 24th day of kindergarten. He brought chicken salad sandwiches, grapes, and cheese for snack. We grew our collection of eucalyptus fruit to 2400. We had lessons in math, handwriting, and Soundabet reading.

Can your child read any of the words in this pocket chart? If so, leave a comment, say which ones! You can do it!